11 Mar 2019

Defence, justice and security minister, Mr Shaw Kgathi says prison facilities located within public areas are an eyesore and a security problem.

“I have directed the commissioner of prisons to start a process of relocating these old state prison facilities out of the public areas,” said Mr Kgathi.

Mr Kgathi said such facilities also presented a design misnomer.

“I expect the commissioner to report on the progress of finding a suitable location for those facilities by end of March,” he said.

Mr Kgathi shared the remarks when officiating at a Botswana Prisons senior officers conference at Mahalapye recently. The conference sought to finalise their strategic plan.

Mr Kgathi said prison facilities at Tshabong and Mochudi were among those to be affected by the proposed relocation.

“The same is true for Maximum Security State Prison in Gaborone. The facility is wrongfully situated in that it is located within a residential area. The situation cannot be allowed to stay as it is since the facility handles some of the most dangerous and hardened criminals. They are not at an ideal locations, come up with strategies to address the challenge as a matter of urgency,” he added.

In looking for alternative locations to relocate the misplaced prisons, Mr Kgathi said the department must liaise with other departments who might be interested in utilising the current facilities. Some, he said, might be owning plots in suitable locations and therefore propose swapping plots with them.

Mr Kgathi has also appealed to prisons management on the need to widen the department scope to cover a wide range of skills and knowledge transfer to prisoners. “We must seriously improve on the knowledge being transferred to prisoners,” he said.

Mr Kgathi said one of the pertinent issues to address urgently was finalising the prisons food strategy.

He said it was unfortunate for the department to continue spending millions of pula outsourcing food though it had the potential to produce enough food.

He said the proposed strategic plan would ensure optimal functionality of the prisons.

The agricultural aspect of rehabilitation, he said, would be developed such that the prison industries ensured self-sufficiency in food production, with a surplus to feed markets.

Another issue that was being attended to urgently, Minister Kgathi said, was the development of a Sentencing Policy encompassing alternatives to imprisonment.

He said the proposed policy would address, among others, the challenge of overcrowding at prisons and backlog of cases.

Despite being found guilty, Mr Kgathi said some convicts would be better off rehabilitated through other means rather than imprisonment. He also noted that his ministry had proposed transforming prisons staff college into a centre of excellence.

“Let us modernise our training, elevate the curriculum and produce graduates who are compliant with the 21st century technological advancement. Looking at the performance of the Prisons Band, we have the potential of offering music lessons and by so doing, the department will be rehabilitating members of the community to desist from committing crime as they will be empowered with other possible means of making a living. Our mission is to reduce the numbers of people who go to prisons,” he said.

Despite facing a plethora of challenges, Mr Kgathi applauded the department for serving diligently with limited resources.

“As a way of improving the conditions of service, I have proposed an entry point of B1 for newly recruited warders and wardresses. The commissioner of prisons will also be elevated to F1 scale. This is done with the view that you have been patient and loyal in serving the nation,” he stated.

He however cautioned prisons staff to desist from engaging in dubious activities that jeopardised the security of the nation. ENDS